Most Police officers reading this will be on nodding terms with "Operation Litotes" and "Operation Liberal". For those of you who haven't heard these terms before though, they are to do with "distraction burglaries".
Now I reckon most coppers (though I can only really speak for myself) have some sort of grudging respect for decent villains. The type who plan their heist down to the final detail, sneak in and out without anyone noticing and nobody gets hurt. Think "Oceans Eleven" but with less hair spray.
I would love to catch somebody who's done a job like that, but I'd probably shake their hand just before I shut the cell door on them.
However, this isn't Hollywood and most of the criminals in our area don't have the same gleaming white smiles and $500 hair cuts. They have the brown, yellow and black teeth with greasy, dirty mop of hair that is normal for the raging heroin or crack cocaine addict.
And they don't plan their jobs to the minutest detail. They instead find a house that looks like somebody elderly lives there and then try and con their way in. I'm not giving away any secrets here. Groups like "Help The Aged" and "Age Concern" have been offering advice to the elderly about this type of criminal for years.
Trouble is, it normally gets ignored. Not because the person involved is stupid, but rather because they come from a different generation and don't like to seem rude. So when a total stranger turns up at their door, the old person's first thought is probably, "I'll try and help this person". Of course, the person at the door is thinking "Where's your pension book?" There was a two hour delay in us getting one of these jobs reported the other day because the victim concerned didn't want to bother us!
A genuine victim of crime, who really needed us there and then, didn't phone us because she probably knew we'd be too busy trying to sort out the latest arguement between "Dean" and "Bianca" or taking a statement from somebody desperate to use us as a weapon in some insignificant feud.
I've posted about this sort of crime before, right at the start of the blog. I can't remember if I wrote that we caught the bloke in question. He's since had his bail cancelled because the CPS has decided to put it in the Too Difficult Box and not prosecute.
This guy, incidentally, describes himself as "Irish Traveller Builder". Only he was born in the UK, lives in a house (paid for by me and thee) and doesn't build anything. Instead he's decided he's far less likely to get his (stolen) jeans dirty by just stealing money instead.
I'm writing this blog because there's a spate of these jobs happening at the moment, all over the country and more than a dozen elderly people in our area have been hit in the last couple of weeks.
Now, I won't say too much about their technique because some smart arse brief might decide that it predjudices some future trial. Because we WILL catch them. That's not the issue. It's just whether or not we catch them in the house and record them saying to the occupant, "I was actually lying to get in here. I only really want to steal everything you own that isn't nailed down". Because otherwise the CPS will just laugh when we send them the file.
To be fair, most of the victims don't make the best witnesses. Poor eyesight, the onset of dementia and a prediliction for trusting everybody all conspire to make them excellent targets for the gutless thieves who do this sort of thing. It's just that, with the other job I mentioned, we actually did have a picture of him entering the lady's house. And he was good enough to be wearing the same clothes when we nicked him the next day. He was as guilty as a puppy sitting next to a pile of poo, and still he gets away with it.
So, I'm instead going to go and visit all the elderly people in my street and let them know that this sort of thing is going on. Again. And hopefully one or two of them will be that much less likely to fall victim.
The other step is to lobby the government to push for tougher sentences for these people who specifically target the most vulnerable people in our society. I'm going to suggest throwning them into bags and beating them around the head and neck with cricket bats.
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5 comments:
After beating them around the head can you throw them in the nearest river too.
I will never forget this happening to my Gran the so called window cleaner who completely fleeced her, she was just too trusting and her eyesight wasn't good enough.....xx
In the control room we sometimes struggle to resource jobs. When checking mobiles status we almost expect the urgent statement, file to complete, still dealing with prisoners etc. Oh well, no resources for "Wayne & Tracey" and the text threat scandal. Oh dear nevermind!!
An Op Liberal job comes in though, and we can hardly keep up with the callsigns shouting that they were making to the area.
The calltaker is struggling to get any info from the victim. They usually blame themselves for letting them in. Their pride has taken a real bashing. Often they are in tears and the only way we get the address is from the BT operator. Others in the room are looking for similar jobs to put out possible vehicles for Obs. Anything that might help the Officers catch the 'oxygen-thieves'.
As well as the true Op Liberal jobs we have had a number of the 'Irish Traveler Builder' types who seem unable to produce a true quotation. The £200 job suddenly becomes £2,500 but they very kindly give the (always) elderly customer a lift to the bank or cashpoint to get some money! We treat them exactly the same.
Sometimes we catch them. Sometimes we catch them after they have hit 3 or 4 houses as by then you can guarentee everyone with a car is out looking for them.
A success on a job like this and it lifts the mood for days. Failure and it goes quiet for a while. We had a real victim to a real crime and we let them down.
They will be caught eventually but in the control room we never see those results.
Then again, we don't have to look the victim in the eye and see their distress. Being on the end of the phone is sometimes bad enough for me.
They are scum, no other word. They target the old and infirm because they know that there is enough to discredit them as witnesses, even if the CPS even consider a crack at it because as major witnesses they are deemed to be unreliable. These are bloody victims but we have a system that only appears to protect the criminals, the offenders and have the system set up to provide protection for their rights. We are at the frontline with these people and to tell them the system is supposed to protect them is a falsehood. We have to play by all the rules, comply with all the various protocols and the offenders, well they can do what they want, lie, cheat and rest safe in the knowledge that they are the ones with all the protection. And sentencing, well that is a disgrace. Tough on crime ?
The only way to take them on is by linking offences and someone upstairs deciding to use the "big gang" approach. Whatever else happens we are still the biggest gang in town. You need many victims all giving a similar version of events. Deploy your best statement takers. Heck consider rolling out the ABE suite. Write off a good jack for 6 months to getting the evidence and turning it into a file that sticks. Do the financials. Target the vehicles. ANPR is v v cool as are PNC info markers. Ob them. Cam the likely repeat victims. Make CSI dust and swab everything in sight. Give it our best shot.
We are the biggest gang around, but how much more effective would we be if they just let us get on with it rather than tieing our hands at every given opportunity?
I've gotta say, our control room are great when this sort of job comes in. Everyone, Police, Civillian, whoever, pulls together and it's a really good environment to work in. Just a shame it takes an elderly victim...
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